Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei - Volume 03 - Nine Schools Competition (I)

There are currently nine national magic university attached highschools throughout the state.

The first highschool is in Kanto (Tokyo).
The second highschool is in Kinki (Hyougo).
The third highschool is in Hokuriku (Ishikawa).
The fourth highschool is in Tokai (Shizuoka).
The fifth highschool is in Tohoku (Miyagi).
The sixth highschool is in San'in (Shimane).
The seventh highschool is in Shikoku (Kochi).
The eighth highschool is in Hokkaido.
The ninth highschool is in Kyushu (Kumamoto).

These are the only magic highschools in the country.
It does not refer to the fact that there are only nine highschools attached to the nine national magic universities, but rather that they are the sole nine highschools teaching magic as the main curriculum.

To tell the truth, the government is more than keen to increase the number of magic highschools.
They are unable to do so because they cannot secure enough mages who go on to become teachers.

The first, second and third highschools accept 200 new students a year.
The other six can take another 100 each.

In total, that's 1200 entrants.
This is the limit to the new number of mages that can be produced per year.
It's approximately equal to the number of youth with eligible levels of magic that appears in the population.

But at the same time it's thought that if more ample educational opportunities could be provided, the possibility that even more youth with late budding magical talent could be discovered is not inconsiderable.

The reality however is that the running of just these nine magic highschools fully stretches the human resources of this country.
Therefore the only way to address this deficit is to take these 1200 freshmen a year, train them as much as possible, and raise their level to the max.
In doing so the number of mages will gradually increase, and in the future it is expected that this positive spiral will eventually fix the dearth of teachers.

One of the measures taken for that are competitions at the school level between the nine magic highschools, to fuel the aspirations of the students.
The largest of these is the summer Nine School Competition.

It's a nationwide magic highschool magic tournament.

Every year a selection of magic highschool students from across the country meet, putting their pride on the line, and unfold a story of frustration and glory.

With a huge crowd including not only government officials and those interested in magic but businesses, overseas companies, researchers and scouts, this is the greatest stage for magic highschool students to shine.

This year too, soon, the curtains of that momentous event will be raised again.

The year 2095 AD, mid July.

The week after the first semester's finals were over for the National Magic University affiliated First High, the students devoted all their energy towards preparing for the Nine Schools Competition during the summer.
However, he — Tatsuya Shiba that is, was completely out of tune with such school spirit.
This was partially due to the fact that his logical nature overrode his emotions.
That being said, the primary reason for his being at school today was because the faculty had summoned him for a meeting in regards to his exam scores.